Bird God Drone: DUMBO, Brooklyn, New York
Nick Hornby is showing a new public art commission by Two Trees Management Co., Bird God Drone, at Clumber Corner, Brooklyn, New York, from 23 October 2013 - Autumn 2014.
DUMBO, Brooklyn, October 23, 2013—Two Trees Management Co, in partnership with NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program, is pleased to present Bird God Drone, a sculpture by British artist Nick Hornby, at Clumber Corner, located at the intersection of Washington and Prospect Streets in Brooklyn. This will be the third public sculpture commission by Two Trees Management Co. this fall, following the installation of Allen Glatter’s TALLY-HO at the corner of York and Front Streets and Half Story Mountain by Grayson Cox in Brooklyn Bridge Park. All works will be on view through fall 2014. In Hornby’s Bird God Drone, the outline of Michelangelo’s David – one of the most famous and widely reproduced sculptures in the world – has been extruded vertically over 12 feet to converge at a single point. In Bird God Drone, the silhouette of David’s conquering and classical Renaissance body lies horizontally, flush with the ground, and visible from above: by workers peering out of windows, tourists crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, birds, gods, and drones. The sculpture is robotically carved from a synthetic composite to the accuracy of a fraction of a millimeter (+/- 0.8mm). The figurative perfection of Michelangelo’s sculpture is juxtaposed against the Platonic ideal of geometry. Hornby has derived his outline, not from the original marble carving, but from a white plaster copy from the late 1800s located in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Here, in Brooklyn, Hornby's sculpture is repositioned in another historical moment of belief in technological progress. It is no longer God and nature alone that view from above, but also drones and satellites, the components of our industrialization of space. Accompanying this sculpture is a video of the work shot from above by a surveillance drone. The sculpture is designed specifically for this bird's-eye view, inverting the 'man on a plinth' monument which is traditionally viewed from below. The video will be available on YouTube, accessible via smart-phones, and disseminated by social media, revealing Michelangelo’s outline dropped like a Google pin point (the hallmark of contemporary travel) in the urban landscape.
About the Artist
Nick Hornby is a British artist living and working in London, England. He has exhibited in the UK, the US, Switzerland, Greece, and India, including Tate Britain, Southbank Centre, and Fitzwilliam Museum, United Kingdom; Eyebeam, New York; and The Hub, Athens Greece. Hornby was a 2011 artist in residence at Eyebeam, New York. He has been awarded several Prizes and has been featured on Artforum.com, Wired, Conde Naste Traveler, and Time Out, among others. He has a special commission permanently sited at the Andaz 5th Avenue. He is represented in the US by Churner and Churner gallery (www.churnerandchurner.com). Hornby has a solo exhibition —his first in the United States—at Churner and Churner, 205 10th Ave at 22nd Street, through November 2, 2013. He is also included in the Museum of Art and Design’s exhibition, Out of Hand: Materializing the Post-Digital, which runs from October 16, 2013–July 13, 2014.
Visiting the Exhibition
Bird God Drone will be on view at Clumber Corner, located at the intersection of Washington and Prospect Streets, in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Subways: F to York St, A/C to High St
